Re: [Fwd: Re: [Gnumed-devel] how to configure gnumed to use not just "localhost"]

[Thilo Schuler]

catmat wrote:
> > hello catman,
> >
> > this sounds very promising. i am a german med student but on annual 
> > leave in sydney to work on a openEHR project (and live with my 
> > girlfriend ;)).
> >
> > i have been at the german gnumed conference last december and this is 
> > actually where Karsten brought up the idea to go to AU and work with 
> > the openEHR guys. as he thinks about supporting this interoperable 
> > approach in the future.
> >
> > i didn't get involved in gnumed at that time but i consider it the 
> > most promising open source initiative for small practices and i want 
> > to contribute at some point in time. maybe with my openEHR knowledge.
> >
> > the project deals about building a GUI generator that is based on 
> > archteypes (openEHR's formal expressions for medical concepts). i am 
> > considering XUL (mozilla's markup GUI markup language) as the format 
> > of the generated interfaces.
> >
> > These XUL interfaces depend on mozilla's gecko rendering engine and 
> > can be run directly from the web and as a browser extension. They 
> > could be brought to life with web services. this is important to me 
> > because it would be desirable to have a proof of concept.
> >
> > maybe there is a chance - like you suggested - to use the existing 
> > gnumed's backend.
> >
> > i talked to richard terry yesterday and i will drive up to newcastle 
> > next week to chat about GUIs and stuff. i will also contact karsten in 
> > that matter.
> >
> > where abouts do you live. sounds very interesting what you did. maybe 
> > i can call you or we could even meet sometime.
> >
> > cheers, thilo
> Where abouts in Sydney , and who are you doing the project with ?  Is 
> the project open for collaboration with  overtly open source projects
> such as gnumed ?

I live relatively close to the CBD (McMahons Pt).

I am doing the generator project with Sebstian Garde (a Postdoc from 
Central Queensland University http://infocom.cqu.edu.au/hi). Sam Heard 
one of the main persons behind openEHR is also involved.

Yes the project is going to be open source thoroughly as openEHR, 
Sebastian and I believe strongly in OSS concept.

I will shortly tell you a little bit about myself. I have done three 
years of medicine in Freiburg, Germany and will finish the six years 
degree after I return from Sydney in Oct 05. I had always had an 
interest in informatics too. Since German physicians don't get an MD 
title automatically with the their degree a lot of them do a thesis. I 
used this as a chance to combine my interests in medicine and IT.

> I live in Melbourne.  How do you find openEHR and XUL? What are the 
> issues you've found with trying to build a gui generator
> for openEHR?

We haven't started implementing the generator. Still in the planing 
phase (use-cases, technologies, talks with experts). I know the openEHR 
initiative for more than a year now and I think it is on the edge of 
establishing itself as  a acknowledged architecture in the health 
informatics world (CEN standards, Health Connect Brisbane Trial). I 
think the basic openEHR concept (two model architecture) is really 
powerfull and could be a big toward interoperability of EHRs. This 
approach separates clinical knowledge (distinct, shareable archetypes) 
and information (based on a generic, stable information model).
I am not sure about XUL. I have preliminarly chosen it because it 
provides a standard based (XML) framework to express the presentation 
layer. Because of the just in time compilation through mozilla's gecko 
engine it is plattform independent. And since the free mozilla suite 
(the whole mozilla browser is built with XUL) is fairly widespread there 
is a mininmal need to install additonal programs. Their is also a freely 
available o'reilly book this framework (http://books.mozdev.org/) Their 
are some impressive clients (http://www.faser.net/mab/remote.cfm; open 
with mozilla >= V1.7) that can be both be run off the web or locally.

> Sorry if I sound a bit guarded, I sort of  trust  gnumedders more 
> easily, when they make significant contributions such as code, 
> critiques, requirement
> specification, requirements exploration,  artwork.  But it would be good 
> if someone who knew openEHR  well ,  joined the gnumed project !

I know that Gnumed has a very sophisticated back-end and I would like to 
do a proof-of-concept i.e. a GUI in use (I am working at a dr. office 
where such a test could be run). I playing with the thought of building 
a couple of archetypes&templates that fit a subset of the Gnumeds 
backend structure. The generated XUL interface could then be hooked to 
the gnumed backend through web services (maybe wrapper for middleware?). 
 These are just mind games. Our emails and the the meeting with richard 
are steps to explore them.

Regards, Thilo

@catman: Do you use VoIP? I am "the_real_tealow" in skype.